An Urgent Call to Action
In 2024, my spouse and I will celebrate 50 years in Canada! I remember landing in Montreal with my sweetheart in 1974 and seeing for the first time the automatic self-opening doors at the airport, which magically opened, and let us out without going through immigration and customs. I am not too sure how this happened! We later had to visit the immigration office to explain what occurred and get our landed immigrant papers in order. Our arrival also coincided with the first major snow storm. Coming from sand, palm trees, and + 34º C to white snow covering everything and – 20º C needed some adjustment, to say the least. Friends had to show us a covered swimming pool and assured us that the weather will be hot one day and we would be able to enjoy swimming outdoors in the summer. I also remember our Canadian Citizenship ceremony and how proud we were coming out of the event. Fifty years later, we are still enormously proud to be Canadian, and immensely grateful that we have chosen Canada, and that Canada has chosen us.
Over the last fifty years, Canada has changed and we have also changed. Change is constant and is part of life. A quote by motivational writer, William Arthur Ward, reminds us that “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” And yes, adjusting the sails with a positive attitude is key to enjoying life.
These days more than ever, Canada needs to continuously adjust its sails to manage change in a smart way: preserving the good, overcoming any head wind, safeguarding our environment, and managing socio-economic trials with wisdom and responsible stewardship. Here are some facts about Canada, coast to coast, and some simple questions.
Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas that can keep our friends in Europe warm in winter and cool in summer and help them reduce their dependence on Russian and Middle Eastern energy. Canadian contractors can build a liquified natural gas export infrastructure, and we have large shipyards to build ships to transport energy efficiently and environmentally safe. What is getting in the way of this happening? In simple layman words, we need to put a BBQ gas tank on a boat. Is this too difficult?
Western Canada hosts the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, 15 % of global oil reserves. Transporting this resource across Canada in a safe, efficient, and environmentally clean manner beats importing oil from Saudi Arabia and transporting it half-way through the world’s oceans and seas in rusty oil tankers, as we do, and paying $2.3 B for it! More over, British Columbia is a world leader in sustainable forest management, with leading-edge environmental practices. So if we have land and wood in abundance, why do we have housing problems?
Central Canada has a sizeable manufacturing sector for autos, aeronautics, and high tech, in addition to strong hydro generation. Quebec alone has over 60 hydroelectric generating stations and 24 thermal plants with a total capacity of 37 GW. Canada is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world, after China, the US, and Brazil with a total population just shy of 2B people vs our 40M. I don’t think I need a PhD to say, “we can switch on the lights to many houses!”
The Canadian Prairies region is one of the world’s largest suppliers of agricultural products. We are the sixth largest producer of wheat in the world, produce 30 % of the world canola in addition to other grains like barley, corn, oats, soybeans, and flaxseeds. We account for 20 percent of world exports.
Now I have kept my two favourite observations for last. Canada holds 20 % of the world’s freshwater, and some still worry there’s not enough to go around. Canada’s forests cover 347 M hectares of land and make up 10 % of the world’s total forest area. These two facts tell me that we do not need to import EVIAN water (all the way from the Alps) or IKEA’s famous BILLY bookcases. We can produce them right here in Canada on a license basis. I am sure, EVIAN and IKEA would love a nice commission for just using their brand name, and we can put more Canadians to work and produce a healthier GDP.
None of the above can happen though unless our government gets out of the way. Our government’s mission should be to help Canadians work, invest, build, innovate, and export. The role is to encourage and support, NOT do directly. Set the rules of the game and be a good steward. The answer is not in saying no to our vast resources and supressing our incredible opportunities, but in managing our resources responsibly and harvesting our opportunities intelligently. We urgently need to adjust our sails or run the risk of continuing to head in the wrong direction.
(W 820)